Turn customers into repeat customers with these 4 tips
We spend so much time and energy trying to attract new customers, or paying for memberships with companies like Service Central with a steady stream of new customers. But keeping an old customer is cheaper than getting a new one - so how do you make your customers come back for more, again and again?
Here are 4 tips to help you do just that.
1. Offer return trade discounts
Depending on your trade, you should think about offering return discounts, especially for trades with a likely recurrence eg blocked drain pipes, carpet cleaning, deck re-varnishing, gutter cleaning etc. Even higher value lower frequency jobs like pergolas and kitchen renovations can be entry level jobs into other renovation or landscaping work, and often with the bigger jobs your customers just need a small incentive to make a decision to proceed with additional work.
Make your return trade discount tangible - don't just tell them there will be a 10% discount off of then next job - give them the discount on a voucher or email. This increases their awareness of the discount and something branded with your company's details to hold onto and associate you with.
2. Start a mailing list
Email lists give you an opportunity to stay in touch with past customers in a personal way. Keep your customers updated, share business stories, include info about promotions and specials, and promote your other channels ie social networking.
Be careful not to spam your past customers, and ensure that you have your customer's permission to email them before doing so. Service Central does provide you with the customer's contact details including an address or email address, and these details will always be in your customer list.
3. Create a compelling experience
Focus on the experience that you’re creating for your customer - is it easy for them to be your customer? It is a pleasant experience? Is your service convenient, professional and good value for money, or does the customer walk away afterwards thinking that the job was more hassle than it was worth? Some small business owners send handwritten notes to thank customers for using their services, or include small gifts. It's not always necessary to invest in these extras if your customer service and value is excellent, but they can make all the difference in convincing your customer to return.
This “experience factor” will become more and more influential over the customer's decision of whether or not to use your company again or not, as more and more companies get the basics right.
4. Engage with your customers online
Keeping your product 'top of mind' is key in initiating a new sale from an existing customer. Some people don't have time to sit down and think about adding more new goals to their 'to do' list and home improvements or maintenance are very often the thing that falls by the wayside in today's high pressure society.
Personal attention and keeping in touch leads to firmer awareness about your company's existence which also brings your customers medium to long term goals closer to the present. An easy way to keep top of mind in a personal way is to connect with your customers passively online, through social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn. It's almost like a mailing list except Tweeting your latest business news or specials can be more effective and less intrusive.
There are lots of ways to turn a customer into a repeat customer - what has worked for your business? Who tracks their business's repeat customer ratio?
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Like your comments on starting a mailing list. Can you reccomend a program to do this?
over a year ago by ianheath -
Hi Ian,
over a year ago by Danial
Thanks for the question.
Firstly, one of the best ways to build up a customer list is to keep on taking lots of jobs via Service Central. Each time you accept a lead you're provided with a full range of customer contact details including their email address, phone number, etc. All of this information is stored permanently in your Service Central account for safekeeping.
Now, once you have your customer database, there are a number of great email campaign systems out there. At Service Central we use Campaign Monitor (www.campaignmonitor.com) which we have found fantastic. Only issue is that it is a little expensive as they charge a campaign set-up fee and 1cent per email. That said, their systems are great, and the reporting and list management features they provide are brilliant. I also think that they provide you with a form to put into your website to help you build a customer database, for example asking people to join your emailing list or newsletter list.
Other email programs that I have heard good things about include www.aweber.com and www.mailchimp.com
Hope this helps!
Cheers
Danial
